Robert Begiebing
Author and Teacher

Works

Rebecca Wentworth's Distraction
“Hailed by Annie Proulx in the New York Times... Robert J. Begiebing now completes his trilogy of American historical novels that began with The Strange Death of Mistress Coffin and The Adventures of Allegra Fullerton... The liberating potential of artistic expression clashes cruelly with social convention in a tale that masterfully evokes colonial New England.” (from jacket copy)

The Adventures of Allegra Fullerton
“The green landscapes of nineteenth-century New England are beautifully evoked, and Allegra Fullerton is as keen to catch the play of light in language as she is in paint... the pleasure of the novel derives from its careful specificities of time and place.”—Times (London) Literary Supplement

The Strange Death of Mistress Coffin
New England 1648. The Piscataqua Settlement. A young woman has been found dead, her violated body stripped naked and thrown into a river. Her husband, a reclusive and learned man, has mysteriously halted his legal proceedings against the most likely suspect, who has disappeared into the wilderness. The settlement’s elders call on a young Englishman, Richard Browne, to discover the truth about what happened. But the more he learns, the more puzzling the crime becomes, and the more he finds himself drawn to the wife of the missing suspect... Based on an actual unsolved murder from the records of Colonial America.

Selected Works

Fiction
Rebecca Wentworth's Distraction
“…The best university press novel of 2003 to make the rich history of America accessible to the educated general public.” --Langum Prize for Historical Fiction Prize citation
The Adventures of Allegra Fullerton
“Art, philosophy, religion, slavery, sexual propriety, suffrage—all are addressed with candid clarity... Highly recommended.” --Library Journal, starred review
The Strange Death of Mistress Coffin
“Just imagine Peyton Place as Hawthorne might have written it.” --Booklist